Low Calorie Dieting - Beginner's Guide

Everyone I’ve ever counseled about weight control has admitted to some type of self-defeating behavior. One time it was a woman who secretly snacks on the types of foods she knows will kick off a binge. Another time it was a guy slacking off on the exercise routine that was just beginning to show results. If you know your own weakness, you can renew your commitment to change the behavior that’s blocking your weight-loss success.

When making a commitment to losing weight, some people play destructive mind games with themselves. Here are some examples:

You may be very open minded, and consider yourself to be quite flexible, but still, deep down, you may not be completely comfortable with the idea of changing your diet, which is normal. Change comes hard to most people because it usually means giving up something. In this case, you’re giving up precious calories. Some change is necessary and inevitable, though, if you’re going to break free once and for all from unhealthy behavior patterns like overeating, underexercising, and thinking self-defeating thoughts.

In the following sections, I show you how to recognize your unhealthy behaviors and typical dieting styles.

After you decide a low-calorie diet is for you, you probably need to cut calories where you most indulge. For example, do you eat a big bowl (or container) of ice cream every night? Are you snacking too often on crackers and chips between meals? Does your sirloin steak take up your entire plate? Your excess calories probably aren’t coming from big bowls of salad, unless you’re filling your salad bowl with cold cuts and topping it off with gobs of dressing. And you’re probably not gaining weight from vegetable side dishes, unless the only vegetables you choose are the starchier, more caloric ones like French fried potatoes and buttered corn.

Look at your diet to examine your food preferences and figure out if you overindulge when it comes to a particular food group. Keeping a food diary (see Chapter 4), and reviewing it with this purpose in mind, may yield some surprises about just how much of a particular type of food you actually eat.

When it comes to healthy weight control, how you eat is just as important as what you eat. The “what” is all about the actual food that’s on your plate and in your mouth. The “how” is all about how much you actually eat, how many calories are in the types foods you choose, and how to make low-calorie choices within different food groups to ensure a nutritionally sound diet.

If you can control the portion sizes of the foods you eat, you can eat anything you want. For example, if you can eat one small piece of chocolate or one small scoop of ice cream or one handful of chips, you can eat those foods every day and not worry about gaining weight from them. Right now, you’re probably saying, “Yeah, right!” because you can’t imagine being able to eat such small amounts of your favorite indulgence foods and feeling satisfied. Don’t worry. It’s a process you have to discover; it doesn’t usually happen overnight.

What’s different about low-calorie nutrition and regular nutrition, you may ask? When you’re on a low-calorie diet, you need to make smart food choices because getting all the energy and nutrients you need from food is more difficult than when you’re consuming more calories.

A nutritionally balanced meal contains mostly carbohydrates from grains, fruits, and vegetables; some protein from meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, beans, nuts, or eggs; and a small amount of fat. With the exception of most fruits and vegetables, most foods have at least a little bit of fat, so you’re automatically getting some fat in a balanced meal. Small amounts of added fat also help balance the meal.

When phytochemicals first came on the nutrition scene in the early 1990s, many people thought they were miracle substances. They weren’t vitamins or minerals. Health experts described phytochemicals as non-nutrients found in fresh foods that could help prevent and fight cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Scientists estimate that hundreds, if not thousands, of them exist in foods, most commonly in fruits and vegetables.

Researchers still have a lot to discover about phytochemicals and their specific roles in fighting disease. The jury is also out as to whether or not phytochemicals work when they’re isolated from foods and put into a capsule or pill and sold as supplements. What experts do know is that many health promoting substances are found in foods, some with rather unnatural sounding names like lycopene, flavanoid, indole, genestein, and carotenoid, that may save or extend your life. When you’re following a low-calorie diet, eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is important to ensure you get as many phytochemicals into your diet as you can.